OpenAI partners with Los Alamos to test the benefits of AI for laboratory work

(Bloomberg) — OpenAI is partnering with Los Alamos National Laboratory, best known for developing the world’s first atomic bomb, to explore the opportunities and risks of using artificial intelligence systems to support scientific research.

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The Microsoft Corp.-backed startup said Wednesday it is working with Los Alamos to evaluate how its latest AI model, GPT-4o, can be used to assist and troubleshoot lab tasks – a partnership OpenAI calls the first of its kind. Among other things, OpenAI said it will explore how GPT-4o’s as-yet-unreleased voice assistant technology can help scientists with their research.

OpenAI has made a number of announcements in recent weeks – including deals with Moderna Inc. and Color Health – to demonstrate the potential of its technology for use in healthcare and biotech. Other AI companies, including Google’s DeepMind, have been exploring how artificial intelligence can help discover new drugs.

But the rapid advances in AI have also raised fears among politicians and even some technology executives that the technology could be misused by bad actors to develop bioweapons. In January, OpenAI said that GPT-4 – an earlier AI model – posed “at most” a low risk of helping humans create biological threats, based on past testing.

“The potential of growing AI capabilities is endless,” said Erick LeBrun, a scientist at Los Alamos, in a statement. “However, measuring and understanding potential dangers or misuse of advanced AI in the context of biological threats remains largely unexplored. This work with OpenAI is an important step toward establishing a framework for evaluating current and future models.”

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